Does This Ad Agency Understand Content Marketing? Not Exactly!
I’m continually surprised by the number of advertising and marketing professionals who don’t carry their smarts onto the Web. So here’s a cautionary tale about an agency that misses an all important opportunity to connect with prospective clients. It really amounts to hiding your content under a bushel.
I’m sure the agency in question does great work for its clients. But if I’m using the Web to look for Naples-based advertising agencies, it will be challenging to figure that out. The first problem is that they do not show up on the “advertising agency Naples” Google search. It does get better if I know the name of the agency. Then I will get to their site. That leads to the next problem.
Upon reaching their website, I have to outwait a meaningless flash video which takes about 10 seconds without telling me anything at all about the agency, its work or its style. Once the video finishes, I wind up looking at a very bland page that tells me absolutely nothing about what they do–and it’s so bland that I’m not even inspired to dig much deeper. On the home page is the name of the agency, and a set of icons many of which are designed to take you to password-protected internal sites.
The irony is that below the surface–and it’s not completely obvious which icon will lead you there–they actually do provide information that will help me decide whether I want to consider using them to help me with marketing. Of course, if I picked the wrong icon that’s another time waster.
Once you hit the right icon, you get to a page that explains what they do for their clients and why they will achieve results. They even have some visuals illustrating some of what appears to be very good work. They have a link to a “portfolio” page where you would expect lots and lots of examples of the work that they do. Unfortunately, they provide just a couple of images that don’t really tell you anything at all about why they did what they did. Like many agencies, they’re also a little bit too inwardly focused in terms of the many awards they have won.
For what it’s worth, I only stumbled on their site because it was linked from somewhere else. I will leave the agency unnamed. In fact, I do believe that they are reasonably typical of the missed opportunities suffered by even some terrific advertising agencies.
If ad agencies took the same approach on the web that they take when they present to clients, they would be much more effective. In pitch meetings they have to show their creative. They have to talk about results they’ve achieved on behalf of their clients. They have to make it obvious why they are the logical best choice. If that’s what ad agencies do person-to-person, why the heck don’t they do it online? Don’t waste my time and don’t make me guess. Make it obvious from the moment I reach your site how you can help me solve the problems are almost sure that I have.
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Hi Newt -
I used to work in the ad business, so I enjoyed your article, and have to agree that if any industry should “get it”, it should be the Ad people. Unfortunately, what you describe sounds a lot like the “’90’s” web thinking — we’ll just throw up some Flash, and look a bit different… that’s all there is to the web.
Your idea of living “the pitch” online requires an Agency, or any business online for that matter, to realize this is a community — a living “pitch arena”, when handled in the right way (build a dialog, and be invited to pitch, rather than “spam pitching”). I wonder when they’ll get that?
- Scott
Scott,
I got an email from another agency friend who was intrigued and tried to find the site. But, for the very reason I mentioned–they don’t come up on search results–he couldn’t find them.
Another recent gestalt for me is that effective websites that employ content marketing are very much like effective sales calls. You have to understand your customer’s problems before you even begin to talk about yourself and how you might bring solutions to bear. You certainly don’t lead off with how wonderful you are.
Newt
He who ignores history is doomed to repeat it.
This is the same syndrome we saw in general vs. direct marketing. I have done my share of award-winning creative in the world of general marketing. It’s purpose was to get attention and build a differentiating brand image. Sales could come later.
Direct marketing, which I also worked in successfully (Chief Creative Officer of one of America’s leading DM agencies), is a different animal. DM is more content driven. After all, it expects immediate action.
Unfortunately for agencies that are acculturated to brand building creative, the web is an inefficient medium for brand building. It is a pull medium, not a push medium. The old creative indulgence techniques don’t work, at least not as efficiently and effectively as good, customer-rewarding content.
Agencies need to learn this or starve as the marketing world moves more and more to the web.